Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! New Dungeons & Dragons licensed products from the Toy Fair, International Tabletop Day announcements, Steve Jackson Games Stakeholders Report for 2017 and announcements for 2018, and more!

Two big Dungeons & Dragons licensed product announcements came out of the Toy Fair this year, one literally. The first came from Gale Force 9 who gave details on their new Dungeons & Dragons board game. Few real details came out as it’s tied to the August campaign release, but the game will be two to four player cooperative game released in August for around $50, shortly ahead of the release of the new adventure. Gale Force 9 also announced a new set of card accessories for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition with additions to their spell decks, two new monster decks, and a magic item deck. A new line of Dungeons & Dragons branded miniature paints in two sets, one with ten colors and a paint brush for $25 and another with thirty-six colors and a large model for $70, due out in June.

[Image removed at the request of ICv2]

Meanwhile, WizKids also had several big announcements. The picture above? That’s the new “miniature” in the D&D Icons of the Realm line, the Ship Falling Star. That is the prototype of a full-scale ship with removable decks that are reversible with one side marked with a grid and the other side plain. The first release will be fully painted with a possible unpainted release thereafter. No price or firm release date was announced, but it is planned for release later this year. In addition, WizKids showed off the newest in their “trophy bust” line, this time a black dragon pictured below. This will join the red dragon, beholder, and mind flayer to decorate the walls of your gaming room.

[Image removed at the request of ICv2]

No, that isn’t a strange misplaced logo or a neighboring booth. NECA, the parent company of WizKids, acquired Joseph Enterprises, Inc., the company best known for its omnipresent product commercials for Chia Pets and The Clapper. The company was founded by Joseph Pedott, who will stay with his namesake company during its transition into NECA. While this may seem like an odd fit, the Chia Pet product line has increasingly included more licensed material (most recently a tie-in with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with a Groot Chia Pet), and the acquisition also gives NECA the marketing arm of Joseph Pedot Advertising. The WizKids booth also had several upcoming Chia Pet products on display, including Hello Kitty, Bob Ross, and emoji.

International Tabletop Day planning is underway with the announcement of the first pre-orders. This year’s games include Sparkle*Kittyvariant box art by Breaking Games, Sagradapromos by Floodgate Games, Wonderland which is exclusive to the event from Renegade Games, Action Catsexclusive expansion by Twogether Studios, and a Tabletop Day promo pack from Fireside Games. The promotional games are available for order through normal game distribution channels for store owners. There will also be a marketing kit (limited to 1500) which includes stickers, posters, table stands, and more available for just shipping and handling costs for any game store or community event from the Geek & Sundry website. International Tabletop Day this year is April 28 and you can find out what locations near you are participating at the Tabletop Day official website.

Steve Jackson Games released their annual Report to the Stakeholders for last year. While Munchkin and Zombie Dice are still strong sellers, revenue was down $500,000 from the previous year. If you’re interested in the ins and outs of game publishing for both roleplaying games and tabletop, it’s a fascinating look behind the curtain, but I’ll save you from that if it’s not your thing. What is of note is that Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Gamecost more to produce than “was healthy” and, while it is expected to sell out by the end of this quarter, it will not be reprinted. “The current market doesn't leave room for a game like this to succeed, and it's a great thing that we cut our planned print run by 30% or we would be stuck with copies for years to come.”The card game Port Royal was also listed as a failure as the licensed game from Pegasus had little demand as English language versions imported from Europe undercut sales.

Gen Con announced that ticket sales have increased 6% over last year, the first sell-out year in the conventions fifty-year history. Odds are, that means we’re headed for another sell out this year as well, and this time even sooner than the early July from last year. If you’re even thinking about attending this year’s “The Best Four Days in Gaming”, I’d recommend purchasing now as you can still receive a full refund by contacting Gen Con customer service by phone until June 17 if you change your mind. In the sales announcement, Gen Con also announced the dates for the next four conventions after extending its contract with Indianapolis until 2022: August 2-5 this year, August 1-4 in 2019, July 30-August2 in 2020, August 5-8 in 2021, and August 4-7 in 2022.

Edge of Darkness from Alderac Entertainment Group is a card crafting worker placement game where the players take on the role of guildmasters attempting to exert control over the city of Aegis. It’s hard to describe this game as it’s almost two games in one, or a game with its expansion…but it’s not. Let me just jump to the pledge levels. The Agent level for $60 gets you the center game board, 12 Location boards for places in the city, 90 Advancements for those locations, and the proper cardboard tokens with a bonus set of card sleeves to help protect your game. The Guildmaster level for $100 gets you the center game board plus the advancement extension boards, 21 Location boards and 158 Advancements, and 3D tokens to represent your agents. So it’s somewhere between the base game and its expansion or the base game and a deluxe edition. Either way, there’s more to this project than that as they’ve already unlocked several stretch goals with more to go until the campaign funds on Friday, March 23.

Traveller RPG: Element Class Cruisers is a new boxed set for the latest edition of the classic science fiction roleplaying game. This boxed set includes not only stats and construction rules for the Element class ships, but also ten poster-sized double-sided full-color blueprints for each ship detailed. And if you’re new to Traveller (or missed out on this newest edition), you can also purchase the available core rulebooks so far as add-ons. The PDF copy is available for a £25 (about US$35) pledge, the print version for £50 (about US$70), two different £150 (about $209) pledge levels which add on either all 38 current PDFs for Traveller or the four hardcover rulebooks, and for £275 (about US$382) you get everything in print and PDF both. This project is fully funded and runs until Sunday, March 18.

Not impressed with the way SJG handled Dungeon Fantasy. Too much negativity and complaining about how we weren't giving them enough money to make it worth their while to support the line going forward. Most of the risk was reduced by it being Kickstarted anyway. Plenty of people spent a lot of money to support the game and they have dumped it...shame because it looked good. I expect getting the rights back for The Fantasy Trip has a large part to play in this as well.

Honestly, the Minsc mini was announced ages ago and it's coming out next month. I only picked that because Gale Force 9 doesn't have any promotional images up of the other products yet. And there's not much interesting about the packaging for a paint set, the board game doesn't have an image yet because the next campaign hasn't been announced, and ICv2 was the only outlet I could find with pictures of the cards and while their coverage was amazing, their photos weren't that great (which is understandable, it's a large trade show with a lot of companies, they cover a lot more than just gaming, and convention lighting isn't the best for photography anyway). Besides, it's Minsc.

Steve Jackson Games said Dungeon Fantasy Boxed Set, Disc World and Mars Attacks were tests to see if there was still a large enough market for print GURPS product and it looks like the answer is no. I think this is probably becoming more and more true of the whole hobby and I would not be surprised if in a few years the only print products will be core rule books, everything else being sold as PDF's.

I think The Fantasy Trip may be a reset button for Steve Jackson Games, it gives the company a chance to develop another RPG line with a much smaller scope and no baggage. The problem I see is TFT was not a particularly popular game back in the 70's and it has been dead for 35 years. I just do not see any evidence that there is enough support out there for TFT to end up being anything other than a vanity project for Steve Jackson.

Not impressed with the way SJG handled Dungeon Fantasy. Too much negativity and complaining about how we weren't giving them enough money to make it worth their while to support the line going forward. Most of the risk was reduced by it being Kickstarted anyway. Plenty of people spent a lot of money to support the game and they have dumped it...shame because it looked good. I expect getting the rights back for The Fantasy Trip has a large part to play in this as well.

They fulfilled the Kickstarter and I would say they exceeded expectations as well, I was a $250 "I want it all" contributer and I felt it was worth every penny. The problem is, Steve Jackson Games was hoping the product would have a wider audience and would act as a gateway product. I suspect the pre-orders from retailers was much lower than they expected, so low in fact, they cut the print run by 30%. The problem with Kickstarters is they will always attract the hardcore players, but that is rarely a good indicator of popularity among the larger gaming community. From a business stand point, they made the right decision.

In the Stakeholder Report, they do talk about how the Print-on-Demand and Drive Thru PDFs have done well for GURPS. But I wouldn't expect more traditional print run products from SJG for The Fantasy Trap unless it's Kickstarter-exclusive or close to it.

SJG did indeed fulfill the Kickstarter and the game looks great but to my mind they didn’t do a good job creating any confidence in the system going forward...nobody was going to drop the substantial amount of money being asked on the game when they could go buy another system for less that promised to support their line well without moaning about how poor the profit margins were. Munchkin money won’t last for ever, in fact I think that bubble will burst soon and I think they will be in trouble because they didn’t support other lines through difficult times and keep some diversity. I can say for certain that I didn’t invest in the line because of the things SJG were saying about dumping it if we didn’t give them enough money...the box was a stupid concept...because it was too big and empty as well, even though I love boxed rpgs. I’d say look at Shadow of the Demon Lord for a more focused approach with great support and confidence going forward...all from pretty much a one man band too. Why try to pitch the game at beginners as well with a high entry price and a complicated rule system? They should have pitched it for what it is...a rich, deep roleplaying experience with huge flexibility. I don’t mean to be down on SJG as I really like some of the games they’ve made but I got the impression they think they did everything right and it was our fault for not giving them more money and showing them more love...when actually I think they got this wrong and promoted it poorly.

@Abstruse - the link you have toward the bottom of the article to the Kickstarter News website takes me (at least) to a page which says I don't have permission to access (logged in, Copper subscriber). Also, is it linked off of any other menus on the front page? I can't find it anywhere.

Oddly enough, I do see Kickstarter articles when hitting the main news page browsing on my phone, but not on my PC.

EN World Reviews

Mists of Akuma may be the Meiji – Punk post-apocalypse RPG setting you never knew that you needed. The game enlists your character in the tragic tale that is Soburin, offering a dizzying array of possible cultural hooks to embrace.

Even though I’ve played and enjoyed just about every edition of Dungeons & Dragons, with an exception to 4th, I’ve pretty much stayed out of the fray in regards to D&D clones. I’ve somewhat maintained the semblance of a semi-regular D&D Basic campaign (live game) for about two years, primarily relying on the Rules Cyclopedia, and occasionally mixing (and experimenting) in elements from games like HackMaster as well as more recently, Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Like any role-playing alchemist, I’ll never stop mixing. And since Mazes & Perils Deluxe Edition is a clone of Holmes Basic D&D, I’m eager to take a closer look.

This is the Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone…. Mayday. Mayday…. We are under attack…. Main drive is gone… Turret number one not responding…. Mayday…. Losing cabin pressure fast calling anyone…. Please help…. This is the Free Trader Beowulf…. Mayday…. Bold explorers and brave travellers journey between the stars in Traveller the science fiction roleplaying game by Mongoose Publishing.

I love zines. And, really, who doesn't? Zines are the ultimate expression of the DIY (do-it-yourself) aesthetic that has always been central to role-playing games. With crowd funding sites like Patreon, zines can become, while perhaps not profitable but at least self-sustaining. Kobold Press is using the site to bring out their print zine for Dungeons & Dragons 5E, Warlock. Let's take a look at the most recent couple of issues.

Welcome once more to our monthly roundup of offerings from the Statosphere, the community-generated content portal for the Unknown Armies RPG. This month, we're taking a look at a trio of titles to drop into—or even kick off—your campaigns.